


He Came to Me in a Dream

by HisTwenty7Tattoos



Category: One Direction
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-01 22:13:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5222858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HisTwenty7Tattoos/pseuds/HisTwenty7Tattoos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People see their soulmates in a dream as a warning that they'll soon meet. Zayn's a little disappointed because his two best friends had theirs years ago and he's a college graduate who hasn't had his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> All mistakes are mine. I couldn't sleep and was thinking about One Direction (who wasn't, right?). I wrote this at one in the morning so I'm sorry if it stinks. More of this story to come soon!

The rules are simple:

1\. The dream will happen at random. It is characterized by an overwhelming feeling of consciousness within the dream and a white background until the dreamer realizes what is happening.  
2\. Someone will appear in the dream. This person is your soulmate.  
3\. In your dream, upon meeting your soulmate, you are not allowed to kiss or discuss details about your address, location, or anything that may lead to either of you knowing how to find the other. A violation of these results in the immediate end of the dream.  
4\. This dream is a sign that you will soon meet your soulmate. Meetings have been as soon as one day or as far away as three months.

Zayn rolled his eyes at the verbatim notes he had taken from one of his first year college courses. He remembers being so intrigued like everyone else in his class. Now he doesn't know what to think of it.

He knows the phenomenon is real, sure. His own best friend Louis Tomlinson had his dream a month before he started third grade. He remembers Lou telling him that as a young boy, he woke up enthusiastically to tell his mom about the fun, curly-haired boy he had played with in his dream that night. Sure enough, as Lou tells it, on the first day of school he had climbed on the bus and was met with a familiar pair of green eyes. Zayn's friend had been attached to his new companion up until high school, where they then became high school sweethearts and are currently still dating- duh, soulmates.

He hasn't had his dream yet, although he once was ecstatic to find himself in a dream of white, frantically searching everywhere for another person, and finding none other than Louis and knowing it was his stupid mind playing tricks on him. He swears he awoke in a sweat, chest heaving at the false suggestion of being stuck with Louis for the rest of his life. Can you blame him though, Louis was awful (in the absolute best of ways).

And just as Zayn comes to this conclusion, he regrets thinking the last part, "Oi, Zayn! Get your bitch-ass in the kitchen and get me another beer will ya?"

He turns to give his best friend a steely glare and is met with Louis' classic appearance, a shit-eating grin on his face, crazily styled hair on his head, and a Harry Styles perched in his lap. He decides to flip Lou off instead, blow Hazza a kiss, and stalk out of the small party for a smoke break.

Later that night, he ends up shoving a wasted Louis and an emotionally-drunk Harry into their bed before crashing on their sofa in the living room of his mates' flat. He thinks about watching some TV before falling asleep, but he knows he'd be out within the first couple of minutes. He pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and wraps himself up before hiding his face in the cushions.

~

Zayn's absolutely terrified. He's hiding under the stairwell of an abandoned building, head swiveling wildly and legs ready to dash at the first sign of trouble. He hears a loud bang on the door to his left, and starts nearing the bottom of the stairs just in case. The rhythmic banging keeps getting louder, and soon Zayn can visibly see the door moving from the people beating against it. It finally gives, and Zayn sees more of them.

They're regular people, and when he looks closer he realizes they're his family- his sisters, his mom, his dad, even Louis and Harry are present in the mix. As soon as they see him though they start to change, just like the other ones he had outrun earlier. Their faces start to misshape, eyes turning red and teeth extending into long points. Their skin starts to shrivel and rot and their hair falls out. It's horrifying, and it's also enough to bring him to his senses to start running up the stairs. He thinks he makes it to about the third flight, the things always just a few steps behind, and then the steps are gone and he's falling.

Zayn has fallen in dreams before, which is why he's a little surprised to find himself laying on his back on white tile instead of waking up in sheer terror on Louis' couch. His chest is heaving and he's waiting for more of the monsters disguised as his loved ones to find him when he hears a voice call out.

"Hey, are you okay, mate? You look a little shaken."

Zayn gives himself whiplash with how quickly he turns to the voice. The boy he sees is about his age, hands held out like he's approaching a startled animal and eyebrows scrunched up in concern.

Zayn decides that this boy isn't one of the things from his previous nightmare. They didn't talk, so he takes his outstretched hand and pulls himself up to his feet, "Uh, yeah. I think I was just in a really bad nightmare. But you don't look too scary."

The guy laughs and his look of concern changes to a crinkly smile, "Thanks, I guess. So if you just had a nightmare, do you know what this is?"

Zayn takes his time to look around. Everything is white, which he thinks is weird. Sure he had a nightmare, but he didn't die, right? And then it hits him, like a punch to the stomach. He takes a sharp inhale and walks back a few steps from the boy next to him.

"I thought you decided I wasn't a part of your nightmare?" The boy laughs nervously and reaches to scratch at the back of his neck.

"What's your name?" Zayn nearly spits at the man.

"I'm Liam. Liam Payne. Why? What's your name?"

"Zayn Malik. Liam this is the dream."

"I thought we established that this was a dream already," Liam enunciates slowly, giving Zayn a look like he's lost his mind or grown a second head. Which, hey, this is a dream, okay? Second heads are not out of the question.

"No, Liam. Not A dream, THE dream."

Liam's look takes a while to disappear, but when it does it's replaced by one of pure shock, staring directly at Zayn.

"This is my dream... My dream. Zayn you're my soulmate. You're... Mine."

And Zayn doesn't know how he does it, but Liam's grinning his crinkly grin again, only this time it's nearly blinding with how happy he is. Zayn is sure his face is plastered with the same enthusiasm- he found his soulmate for fuck's sake. He's finally had his dream.

Then he remembers something one of his friends had told him about their dream. "Liam," he says the name the first time to taste it on his tongue, "Liam, can I try something?"

"Yeah, sure."

Zayn closes his eyes and tries to remember the coziest place he's ever seen. He's delighted to find him and Liam both there when he opens his eyes again.

"Woah! Is this your room? This is sick!" Liam's praises as he slowly walks around the room before standing next to Zayn again.

"Um, no. I actually saw this on Twitter. I thought it would be cool, though."

"It is, it's really nice," Liam says, still looking around at the room. Finally he turns to face Zayn, "Can I, um, touch you? Not like that but like, yeah... I don't really know much about this. Like there are rules, right?"

"Yeah, I learned about this in my first-year college seminar. We can't kiss, and we can't give anything away that would make it possible for us to meet each other intentionally. If we do that, we wake up. This dream means that we'll meet each other soon, though."

"How soon?"

"I don't know. It could be anywhere from a day to three months."

"Okay. We can like, hold hands or something though? Like if I touch you right now, we won't wake up?"

"No. You can touch me," Zayn gets out with a small chuckle, "But I wasn't thinking of holding hands. This place is cozy Leeyum," Zayn draws his name out and is happy when Liam smiles at the sound, "I was hoping for something along the lines of cuddling."

"I like you. I haven't even taken you to a proper dinner yet and you're already initiating the physical aspects of our relationship."

Zayn can't help but let out a loud, genuine belly laugh before he grabs Liam's hand and guides him around the room. He let's go of Liam to climb onto the bed, but moves nearer to him as soon as Liam is laying back next to him. Liam lays his arm out perpendicular to his side and Zayn crawls to rest his head right in the crook of Liam's armpit. He's on his back with both hands crossed over his stomach, Liam doing the same with his one free hand.

"So, Zayn. I have a very important question for you," Liam states bluntly. Zayn looks at Liam to show that he's serious for whatever follows, "You're gay, right?"

Zayn curls into Liam's side with the laugh that bubbles up through his throat. Soon he feels Liam laughing against him, and it's a while before they can calm themselves down, both taking deep breaths to recollect.

"Yeah, yeah I am," Zayn manages, still chuckling.

"Well that's good. This would've been really awkward otherwise," Liam says with a smile aimed in Zayn's direction.

"Okay, I have a question now."

"Go ahead," Liam raised an eyebrow to show his interest.

"You'll still buy me dinner after this right?" They laugh again before Liam promises in the affirmative.

They lay there for a while, talking and laughing, not taking anything too seriously. They're soulmates after all, they'll have the rest of their lives to figure things out.

It's not until much later that Zayn feels himself waking up. "Liam, do you feel that, too?"

"Yeah, yeah I do," Liam breathes out a long sigh and looks sad to feel the end of their meeting.

"Hey, don't look so much like a kicked puppy, yeah? I'll see you soon," Zayn nudges Liam's chin with his nose. It puts a smile back on his face, although not as big as the ones before.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon, Zayn," Liam presses a kiss into his forehead before all Zayn sees is white.

He opens his eyes slowly, feeling completely relaxed and a little dopey, similar to the time when he and Lou tried smoking weed in college. Eventually he pulls himself up from his nest in the couch and makes his way into the kitchen, stealing Lou's cup of coffee before he can protest.

"Okay, Harry, are you sure we grabbed the right Zayn last night. Our friend was never this happy in the morning..." Lou asks, pointing a fork in Zayn's direction threateningly.

"Like either you or Hazza was competent enough to bring anyone home last night but each other," Zayn snorts.

"Fair enough, but seriously, what the hell? Did you bang some bloke on our couch as revenge, or why are you this happy?"

Zayn and Harry both laugh, and then Zayn responds, "Sort of, I had my dream last night," he says before hiding his smile in his cup of coffee.

"Wait! You can fuck someone in the dream and I didn't know about it?!" Harry looks genuinely distressed.

Lou's eyes are as wide as saucers, "Okay 1) even I think that's gross Harry we were kids, 2) you completely missed the most important thing that has ever come out of our Zaynie's mouth, and 3) ZAYN YOU HAD THE DREAM??"

Zayn looks between his two best friends with a smile, both of them looking like they're ready to start begging for details, "Yes. I had my dream."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn is getting discouraged when it takes him so long to meet Liam, but then he gets a very welcomed (and painful) surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just gave this a quick read through so sorry for any mistakes!

Zayn knows he’s not the best person at waking up in the morning, and Louis knows it, too. Which is why Zayn is completely shocked and already plotting his revenge against his best friend. Louis is jumping up and down on the bed above Zayn and shouting at the top of his lungs, “Wake up! Wake up! Zaynie, wake up!” Zayn swears if this isn’t an emergency he’s going to throw Louis out the window of his flat.

“Lou, I swear I will punch you in the balls if you don’t get your nasty-ass feet off of my bed.”

Harry laughs from the door way and Zayn turns his head just in time to see him doubling over at his comment, and Louis huffs above him before dropping down directly on top of Zayn and sticking his feet in the air. He swears he regrets giving them his spare key for emergencies.

“Louis…” he starts, threateningly.

“My feet aren’t on your bed anymore, Zaynie,” Louis smirks at him and cuddles around him even more.

He gives Louis a smile in return and then shoves him off the bed so he lands hard on the floor. He turns his back to them and pulls the covers over his head, hoping they’ll get the hint and leave him alone so he can sleep. Instead, Harry cackles even louder, and Zayn hears him fall to the floor and gasp for breath. Louis mutters a few curse words and then tackles Zayn, flinging them both to the other side of the bed, and then starts clawing the covers off of Zayn. Once they’re down far enough Louis starts to tickle him. Zayn flails around before gripping Louis’ wrists and pulling him close for the sake of not being attacked anymore.

“Wait! I want to cuddle, too!” Harry frowns and then sprawls out on the both of them.

“Guys!” Zayn groans, “Let me go to sleep! Why are you even here?”

“Well, my dear Zayn, I’m glad you asked,” Louis starts, “You see, ever since that dream of yours, you’ve been moping around just waiting for Liam to find you. And because I am the smartest person in this room, you and Harry not included (Zayn furrows his brows, because Louis realizes he just insulted himself, right?), I came to the brilliant conclusion that this guy can’t magically find you if your only home or at work. Long story short, we’re going out for the day!”

And Zayn just stares at him, because Louis is right, but at the same time Zayn is not going to spend the whole day with him and Harry- talk about being a third wheel. The two were so in love that Zayn sometimes felt intrusive just seeing a picture of them together.

“That sounds great, Lou, it really does, but… no thanks!” He teases and then tries wrestling the covers back over his head.

Lou and Harry both climb off of him and his bed, and he honestly thinks they’re going to leave him alone, but then he feels the covers being ripped out of his grasp and he’s left to lay there in his boxers in the chilly air of his room. It’s only the beginning of winter, but his flat has never been good at staying heated. It’s fine really, it gives him an excuse to wear big, comfy clothing and drink excessive amounts of tea. He groans again and hears Louis’ threat on the way out of his bedroom, “We’re giving you an hour, Zayn. And don’t think we can't drag you outside if we need to!” His door shuts rather loudly and he’s left to debate on whether or not he has enough energy to move his bed and barricade the door.

~

An hour and half later, the three of them are stumbling out into the chilly air and walking towards Zayn’s favorite coffee shop for breakfast. He can’t wait until Louis and Harry find out he’s left his wallet at home- if these fuckers think they can force him out of his nice, warm bed for a day of “fun” without consequences, well then they don’t know Zayn.

After Harry buys him a chocolate muffin and a cup of coffee he starts to warm up to the idea of being out for the day. There’s only so much sulking one can do in their own home before it becomes too repetitive.

“So what’s next?” Zayn asks them.

“Well I don’t suppose you’ve been Christmas shopping yet, right?” Louis asks and then waits for an answer. Zayn shrugs and Louis takes that as his cue to continue, “I still have to buy for me sisters, and this one here,” he elbows Harry lightly, “still needs something for his mom.”

Zayn nods his head and replies, “Yeah, okay. But you forgot that I don’t have my wallet with me.”

Harry waves his hand, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. You can just pay me when we get back to your flat today.” Zayn leaves him with another nod and finishes his breakfast.

They leave the shop and walk toward the mall a few blocks down, and Zayn’s thankful that it’s enclosed and not too far away because he can’t feel his fingers very well anymore. They get inside the front doors and start passing the shops. He follows Lou and Harry around as they walk, hands clasped and swinging easily between them, and Zayn tries not to think about his dream, he really does. But it’s been two months and he’s getting anxious. He’s already had to wait over two decades, so he doesn’t understand why the universe thinks it needs to make him wait this long after finally having his dream.

He shakes the thought from his head and follows his boys, buying a few things he thinks his sisters will like before they call it a day and head back to Zayn’s flat. They order in pizza and spend the rest of the night watching classic Christmas movies on TV that Harry absolutely adores.

~

Two weeks later the weather has gotten even colder, and Zayn wonders how the hell he let Louis and Harry talk him into walking down the street to eat in a restaurant when he could’ve just ordered food and stayed in the semi-warm comfort of his house. He’s focused on the ground below him because there’s ice everywhere, not even caring if Louis and Harry are following because fuck it’s cold and the wind is blowing snow straight into his face.

He hears the shouting coming from his right, but it doesn’t sound close enough for him to worry about so he ignores it and tries to hurry as best he can without slipping. Before he fully knows what’s happening, something- or someone rather- knocks into him hard from his right. He’s unable to catch his balance. He falls on his back and the stranger lands right on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs. He has a momentary panic before he sucks in a huge breath and groans out at the pain. Louis and Harry are standing above him and the stranger, staring down at him with big eyes and hands covering their mouths in shock. Then Louis bursts out laughing.

“Shit, Zayn, I wish you could’ve seen yourself fall! It was one of those classic feet-slipping-out-from-under-you-and-landing-flat-on-your-back ones,” he squeaks out before losing it altogether and laughing so hard he can hardly catch his breath.

Louis is just finishing when another stranger comes up to his right, “Damn, that was a bad fall. Are you guys okay?” and Zayn briefly sees that the stranger has a snowball in his right hand.

Finally he hears the stranger, who is still laying on top of him, speak up, “Zayn?” Zayn is still trying to see the newest arrival to the small catastrophe and figure out why he’s carrying a snowball when two hands grip his face, making his cheeks squish, and yank his face to stare at the person above him. For a moment he thinks he must’ve hit his head pretty hard because the stranger is Liam.

“Liam?” And they sort of just stare at each other for a long time because, well, they’ve finally met.

Louis clears his throat above them after a while, “Right, well, you two obviously know each other. Would you stop straddling my friend and stand up so the rest of us can know what the hell is going on?”

Zayn and Liam both turn their attention to Louis, and Zayn has to tilt his head way back into the snow because he’s standing directly behind Zayn’s head. “Right, yeah,” Liam says and pulls himself to his feet before doing the same to Zayn. “M’really sorry about that. Niall and I were having a snowball fight and I was more focused on not getting hit instead of where I was going.” Liam finishes sheepishly and moves his hand to scratch at the back of his neck. “Are you okay, Zayn?” He turns to Zayn again and moves his hands back to Zayn’s head to examine him.

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay,” he flashes Liam a smile and then the other boy- Niall- speaks up.

“Wait a minute! Zayn, like THE Zayn?!” He waits for an affirmation from Liam and then drags Zayn into a huge hug, which is definitely not unwelcome for how cold it is.

“Um, hi,” Zayn mumbles. When Niall releases him he makes his way back to Liam’s side and turns to explain things to his friends. Louis is scowling because he’s not in on whatever is going on and Harry just looks puzzled. He’s honestly surprised that neither of them have figured it out yet, because just two weeks ago Louis and Harry had mentioned him to Zayn when they drug him out for their winter excursion.

He’s just about to open his mouth to talk when Harry speaks up, “LIAM!!! Louis!! That’s Liam!”

And it’s as if all it took was Harry yelling Liam’s name, rather than anyone else saying it for him, to connect the dots. “Oh, Liam! The Liam Zayn has been sulking about for a few months now!” And Zayn swears he wants to kill him. He blushes furiously and is eternally thankful that his cheeks are already pinked from the cold.

“Bro, it’s been the same with this one, believe me!” And Liam shifts nervously next to Zayn’s side.

They let the others introduce themselves and then Liam says, “Hey, um, mine and Niall’s flat is just in this building, and I’m freezing. Would you guys like to come up?”

Zayn swears he’s never been happier as he watches Louis and Harry slide across the ice in a mad race to get into the warmth. And then he retracts that statement because he definitely feels happier when Liam’s hand shyly grasps his on their way to Liam’s.

~

Liam makes them tea when they all make it into the apartment, and as soon as he passes them out- after carefully watching how Zayn fixes his for future reference- he shuffles to stand next to Zayn. Then, in some horrible twist of fate, Louis and Niall decide it’s a great idea to see who can offer up the most embarrassing story about their friends. Harry takes the avid role of an audience member and continues to laugh as Louis and Niall go back and forth, which leaves Zayn and Liam to flush under all the humiliation.

“No, Niall, I swear Zayn is weirder. I met him because we had to do a group project together in uni. That night after we had finished discussing the basics he said, ‘Alright. Talk more tomorrow, love you!’ He said he was so used to texting it to family and stuff so it just happened. Harry was so mad, remember, babe?” Louis and Harry are both laughing at the memory, and Zayn is finally thankful that this story is something he can finally laugh about instead of dying internally like the last one.

“Well one day, I had my nephew in town and Liam and I were at the mall…” Zayn barely registers the “Oh, God” that Liam mutters, “and he thought this bloke was me so he just walks up to him and goes, ‘Alright, give me the baby,’” And Zayn swears he’s never laughed harder at a story in his life, even though Liam is turning and appalling shade of red by his side.

It goes on and on and by the end they all have horrible gut aches and tears running down their faces. Eventually, Zayn, Louis, and Harry decide it’s best that they get back to Zayn’s flat before they’re snowed in. They put their winter coats and shoes back on, and say their goodbyes and make their way down to the lobby to leave. They’re just about to the door to go outside before they hear someone running loudly down the stairs. They turn to look at the commotion and Zayn sees Liam shoot from around the corner before he notices that he has their attention and jog the last bit to meet them at the door.

Liam tries speaking but he’s out of breath, so he motions for them to give him a second and then bends over with his hands on his knees. Zayn looks at him a little concerned but decides it’s best to just wait. When he can breathe a little easier, Liam straightens up. “I didn’t… get… your number…” he gets about between breaths.

Zayn smiles slightly at how adorable he finds the whole situation, and takes Liam’s phone from his outstretched hands. When he’s finished they all say goodbye to Liam again and make their way back to Zayn’s flat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!! :)
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](http://histwenty7tattoos.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> And please leave feedback if you feel so inclined: would you like for there to be a sex scene or something like it at some point in this story?
> 
> Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated, thank you!
> 
> I'm on [ tumblr ](http://histwenty7tattoos.tumblr.com/) !


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